My Elixir Gazpacho

When I was in Barcelona, I had some absolutely fabulous gazpacho. The best gazpacho I have ever tasted! We ate tapas in a cafe outside the Sagrada Familia. The waiter brought the freshest gazpacho. I long to go back for more.

You can understand, then, that I have been on a quest to recapture that elixir — gazpacho. I’ve read all the recipes online and chosen my ingredients. Unfortunately each batch of gazpacho has tasted slightly different as I add different and more ingredients.

Today’s gazpacho was a light green in color. The last batch was very red but that was due to the 4 tomatoes.

To make it easy, everything goes into the blender. Today’s batch included:

3 tomatoes

2 celery stalks

1 avocado

2 cucumbers

1 green pepper

cumin (dried)

oregano (dried)

cilantro (dried)

fresh basil

Persian salt (from Barcelona)

3 garlic cloves

2 very small pieces of fresh wheat bread

sherry vinegar (1 tblsp)

virgin olive oil (2 tblsp)

lime juice

12 olives

So far, the best gazpacho I’ve made (batch #3) had fresh herbs — parsley, cilantro and basil. But the grocery store doesn’t always have the fresh herbs.

I also think the flavor is enhanced if I cut the ingredients on my handmade pecan cutting board and use my hand carved cherry spoon for sampling!